Brewing Fundamentals | Learn with Victrola Coffee Roasters

Coffee to Water Ratio: We recommend starting with 1 tablespoon of coffee to every 6 ounces of water. From that point you can experiment to find the right ratio for you.

Grind Size: We’ve recommended a grind size for each of the brew methods in this guide but this is something you can adjust to reach your preferred taste profile. A good way to experiment with this is to play with grind size versus dose. You can try a higher dose with a coarser grind or finer grind with a smaller dose.

Water Quality: Chemicals like chlorine in tap water can greatly affect your coffee’s flavor. Try using filtered or spring water (from a glass bottle), never use distilled! Distilled water is missing certain minerals that make water more palatable to drink.

Temperature: For best results use a thermometer when heating your water. We recommend 200’F for optimum flavor extraction for most brewing methods.

Storage & Freshness: Your coffee is very sensitive to heat and moisture. The best way to keep your coffee fresh is to use it within about a week of roasting (10 days max). You should keep your beans in an airtight container, away from direct sunlight at room temperature. Also, grind your coffee fresh, right before brewing.

Burr Grinders vs. Blade Grinders: We recommend grinding your coffee fresh, at home, with a burr grinder. Burr grinders grind the coffee by forcing the coffee between burrs so the coffee is only ground once. Blade grinders continually grind and re-grind your coffee, giving you some particles that are super-fine like dust while other particles will be larger. This causes the powder-like coffee to over-extract and gives you a noticeable bitterness in the cup.

Cleaning: You should clean your brewing equipment after every use. Coffee oils buildup quickly and if left for long periods of time can go rancid! Most equipment has dishwasher safe parts for easy cleanup. You can also use a number of food-safe coffee cleaning solutions that are designed to get to those hard to reach coffee oils. Some name brands are Caffiza and Purocaffe, you can find these usually wherever brewing equipment is sold.